


Co-habitation

by bjfic_archivist



Category: Queer as Folk (US)
Genre: Episode Related, Fluff, No Slash, Romance, Season/Series 05, Short, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-04-11
Updated: 2005-04-11
Packaged: 2018-12-27 14:00:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12082485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bjfic_archivist/pseuds/bjfic_archivist
Summary: Living together sounds so simple; but where Brian and Justin are involved, nothing is ever easy. Contains spoilers for late-season five.





	Co-habitation

**Author's Note:**

> Note from IrishCaelan, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [The Brian/Justin Fanfiction Archive](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Brian_Justin_Fanfiction_Archive). To preserve the archive, I began importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in September 2017. I posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [The Brian/Justin Fanfiction Archive collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/bjfic/profile).

Written for the "on_impulse" challenge #2. Word list: plumbing, frame, black, spray, headphones.

* * *

The first weeks of Brian and Justin attempting to live together in the loft were filled with events that would one day make for fabulous anecdotes at Woody's, and lessons learned by everyone involved.

For Brian, it was readjusting to having somebody around all the time, hearing the plumbing gurgle or the spray of the shower from the bathroom and remembering that, 'oh, yeah, I have this kid living with me, now'. Even when he was still underneath Jack Kinney's roof, Brian's co-habitation was a lesson in avoidance, an adolescence spent with headphones almost surgically attached to his ears to avoid communication as much as possible. Dinner was hardly filled with the nuances of the happy hetero home purported by those disgustingly saccharine family sitcoms that Brian's sister Claire liked to watch, where there was lots of conversation peppered with phrases like, "and how was your day, dear?" and "pass the mashed potatoes, please." (Brian hated mashed potatoes, too.)

Other than mealtime, Brian's mother spent her days in the house getting drunk, while his father ambled over to the nearby bar to commisserate with a couple of his buddies over how they should never have gotten married and saddled with "fuckin' kids". More than once, Brian had had to pick Jack up and practically carry him home, his old man's drunken frame heavy and sluggish as Brian struggled to maneuver him into the passenger seat of his own beat-up station wagon that looked like it'd lost a few bar fights of its own.

For Justin, co-habitation was not the issue so much as the realization that he'd been severely spoiled by his mother growing up. Gone were the days of having somebody keep a running inventory of every medication and bathroom accessory that he used, or of leaving his favorite black boxers on the ground and not inciting World War III when Brian found them there. And then he would apologize and grin shamelessly, and Brian would smirk and take advantage of the fact that Justin's underwear was already on the floor.

Over the course of the next five years or so, he would find himself living in many different places, with various people. He would come to realize that he'd only ever felt content and safe and happy living with Brian, and whether they co-habitated in the loft, or a house out in the West Virginia countryside, or a New York City penthouse, he didn't foresee that ever changing. Brian was his one constant, his rock of stability, no matter where life decided to take him.


End file.
